An early posting on this Tuesday. I’m up late getting things prepared for tomorrow’s snow day. But I wanted to take a moment to post my Texture Tuesday photo taken Sunday when an unexpected storm hit the Jersey Shore. We usually don’t have snow this early…rarely do we have a white Christmas but this year may prove different.

My thoughts are with the hostess of these photo postings, Kim Klassen. She continues to be a blessing and an inspiration as she faithfully continues to keep us all on track despite her husband’s fight with cancer.

These are two pictures taken during the height of Sunday’s storm in my own front yard.
The hydrangeas may be brown and long past bloom but they make a wonderful globe for snow.

An azalea bush buried in the snow with a single bloom braving the cold.

If you love great photography and special people be sure to visit Kim’s blog today…she’s special to many, many people not only because of her generous nature in sharing her work but in keeping on top of that work while fighting along side her beloved husband, John. This holiday season why not light a candle for them…I’m going to light a mantle full of them and post that in my Friday Finds. Happy Holidays everyone from a Jersey Shore Girl!

Most of the time I remember about noon time on Friday that I meant to participate in this weekly event…tonight I decided to get a jump on the day. So here is my FF…a rainbow caught in an unexpected place at an unexpected moment. These are the moments why I travel with a camera…even if it’s a toy one or an iPhone or my trusty Nikon I want to be ready when the universe presents that special moment for me to preserve.

When the lens & shutter capture that moment it feels like a sacred event. I am there…in a place no one else will ever stand…at a moment in time that will never exist again. I’m capturing a split second that exists just for me. I think it is the magic of those moments that have had me hooked on photography since I was a little girl. It’s what always gives me Hope!

It’s Texture Tuesday again and I had a photo all set up to shoot and process using some of Kim Klassen’s yummy textures. Of course life never goes as planned and before you could say cheese…or in this case…MOUSE!…One of my 8 furbabies decide to crash the party. Why can’t we cat lovers stay mad for long enough to scold these devious little creatures? This is Goliath being his normal curious self. Be sure to check Kim’s blog for more beautiful photography!

of all of the Holiday festivities that we look forward to yearly. I found this glittery animation and thought I’d share it with all of you…especially with a special someone who goes into a ‘glitter coma’ at the merest sight of bling…this one’s for you sister!

I knew Thanksgiving was coming so I got to work early on my Friday Finds because I KNEW I’d be busy on Black Friday. Was I running through the stores frantically waving my credit card??? Oh no…I was busy on the computer taking advantage of the BlackFriday-CyberMonday deals. Why leave the comfort of my desk chair and beat back the brutal crowds that seem to populate the stores on this day? I really only shop online for Holiday gifts so I was ready early with a Friday find…so ready that I put it out of my mind until it was almost Saturday. In fact, I don’t even know what the posting from Kim was today so I’ll brb to post my photos for FF!

Ahhhhh…our lovely Kim is in Canada and winter has arrived there. We’re still in the throes of Autumn with nary a snowflake in sight but I’m grateful to be able to see her wonderful photographs as she spends the last few weeks in that neck of the woods. My FF are these…photos of my struggling gardenia that has come inside for the winter and an old teapot with a pink rose…picked just after my mammography at the local hospital. As a nine year survivor of breast cancer a gift of PINK is always welcome and this picture represents the beginning of another year in remission. Hope you enjoy my Friday Finds!

A bit of a play on words because this post is for inclusion in Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesdays. But it brought to mind something that I struggle with daily…focusing on what is happening NOW. Not yesterday or tomorrow but focusing on the NOW and accepting it.

My photo today is of my Lily. A 6.5 lb cat that has epilepsy and what would probably be diagnosed in humans as autism. She’s never been ‘normal’ but recently she’s been more accepting of my attentions…and that means there’s something wrong! Last Friday morning I noticed her nose was stuffy and she was having difficulty breathing. I called for a Vet’s appt. and was given a 10:30 placement…by 9:15 I didn’t think she’d make it so we rushed her down and they brought her in immediately. Lily spent the day and when we went to pick her up the Vet explained what they had done throughout the day…including x-rays that revel a large, soft mass in her abdomen. She has required a lot of special attention and care during her short life…sometimes to the detriment of my other furbabies…all 8 of them!! But Lily is special and I have accepted that. What I’m having difficulty accepting now is that her life may be cut even shorter…that I might never have the opportunity to see her grow old.

Instead of focusing on the negative diagnosis I am choosing to accept and focus on the positives. She’s with us now and really NOW is all we have. So each day I will focus on the good she brings along with her ‘troubles’ and be thankful for each breath she breathes beyond the now.

She has been having more seizures than usual and today I found her curled up at the foot of my bed with the quilt pulled over her by one of her loving human family. She is a special cat and one that I will never forget no matter how many more days we get to spend together.

Strength is called for any time that we are called upon to do something that we feel is beyond our capabilities. Take for instance this strong growth of ivy in our backyard…at least 100 feet from a small patch that was growing along the front bank when we moved into this house 20 years ago. Somehow this ivy was able to creep up and over the front yard, around the door of my studio along the side of the house and up and over the backyard fence. When you feel like your goal is too far away and there are impossible odds in front of you…remember this ivy and how it slowly but with great determination and strength made it’s long journey. It survived being trimmed, cut in half over and over but held its ground and kept right on keeping on. You are stronger than you think!

This is a selfie of my Dad back in WWII. Obviously NOT an iPhone pic but I had to share it. Daddy was a lifelong photographer and I was his main model. 15.5 years after his passing I still think of him every time my eye is to the lens. Miss you so much Daddy…hope you would have been as proud of my accomplishments and I was of yours! Happy Veteran’s Day!

Friday came so swiftly…time is flying and I can’t seem to grasp even a single moment as it flies by. But today I crossed a busy road to find a smaller, quieter road leading off into the Autumn woods. Country road…take me home.